"The way you lose the gospel is not by denying it but by assuming it" -D.A. Carson

Monday, April 18, 2011

Is God really a gentlemen? Part II

This is take two on "Is God really a gentlemen?" I've already made the point that we need a God who intervenes in our lives, who does in a very real sense "force Himself on us." So in that way, I would say, we don't need or should want a gentlemen God.

However, I don't think the term gentlemen is completely without merit. It all depends upon the picture you have of a gentlemen. In the movie Last of the Mohicans, one of the characters Duncan, plays the role of the perfect-or close to it-gentlemen. While his commitment to what is "proper" leaves those less anal about "proper" (particularly during a time of war) dissatisfied, one cannot completely begrudge him his mentality. There seems a consistent commitment to sacrifice for more than just his country under the surface of this military man.

He loves a woman who refuses to love him back. He would be happy to see the one whom she does love hanged, and even bluntly says so. But he leaves us no doubt that this is truly a gentlemen of gentlemen. When the Native American captures his "love", they decide to burn this woman to atone for the sins of her father. And so he literally steps in, offering himself instead as a replacement sacrifice.

He dies so that she can live, even though it meant her living and loving another man. That's a gentlemen. Giving up his life for the good of another whom he wished could be his wife.

If this is a gentlemen, then we have a God who does even more. Jesus, as the perfect gentlemen, offers himself not to temporary flames but to God the Father in order to exhaust his burning hot wrath. And he does this to secure and purchase the hand of His bride, the church. For the joy set before Him, he willingly suffers and gives himself up for the joy of His bride. Because of his death, the two can now live in intimate relationship.